Kung Fu’ actor Carradine found hanged in Thai hotel

BANGKOK, (Reuters) – U.S. actor David Carradine was  found dead, naked and hanging from a rope in the closet of his  luxury Bangkok hotel room yesterday, Thai police said. He was  72.

Police said they were alerted to the death of the actor,  who won fame as the wandering monk in the “Kung Fu” television  series, yesterday morning.

“He was found hanging by a rope in the room’s closet,”  Lieutenant Colonel Pirom Jantrapirom of the Lumpini police  station in Bangkok told Reuters.

Carradine’s body was naked when it was found and there were  no signs of other people in the room, Pirom said. The body has  been sent to a hospital for an autopsy.

Lori Binder, a representative for Carradine’s Los  Angeles-based talent manager, said the actor was in Thailand to  shoot a film called “Stretch.” She declined to give further  details of his death while it was under investigation.

Carradine, from a family of performers and the eldest son  of well-known character actor John Carradine, enjoyed a long  career on Broadway, U.S. television and in movies such as  director Quentin Tarantino’s “Kill Bill: Vol. 1” and “Kill  Bill: Vol. 2.”

He was born John Arthur Carradine on Dec. 8, 1936, in Los  Angeles and educated at San Francisco State University, where  he studied music theory and composition.

While writing music for the drama department’s annual  revues, he discovered his own passion for the stage, joining a  Shakespearean repertory company.

After working on Broadway in “The Deputy” and “The Royal  Hunt of the Sun” opposite Christopher Plummer, Carradine earned  a spot on Hollywood’s map in the 1960s in TV westerns such as  “Wagon Train” and “The Virginian” as well as his starring role  in a TV version of hit western movie “Shane.”

But it was the role of Kwai Chang Caine, the wandering monk  in “Kung Fu,” that earned the actor his greatest fame.

The series aired on U.S. television starting in 1972 and  immediately won a large base of fans of the half-Asian martial  arts expert and student of life as he traveled through  America’s Old West.

The show spawned a movie and numerous other offshoots.  Overall, Carradine’s credits include more than 200 roles in  movies, TV, video and DVD spanning nearly five decades.
His role as Caine in “Kung Fu” earned him a nomination for  an Emmy, U.S. television’s highest honor, and his turn as the  villainous Bill in “Kill Bill: Vol. 2” led to his fourth Golden  Globe nomination.

He also won critical acclaim for portraying folk singing  legend Woody Guthrie in the Oscar-nominated 1976 film “Bound  for Glory.”